In relatively large office buildings, including hospitals, it is beneficial to be able to transport various materials or articles from one location to another with maximum efficiency. To accomplish such an objective, conveying systems have been previously developed which include tracks and carriages or cars which move along the tracks. The cars are designed for receiving and holding small articles which are transportable from one station located near one section of the track to another station located near another section of the track.
From previously developed conveying systems, it is known to control the movement of cars along a main track so that they can be transferred to branches of the track for receipt by a station adjacent to one of the branches. In such systems, each of the cars is given a destination address by the user and means are provided adjacent to the interconnection between the main track and the branch for determining whether the car has reached its desired station or destination.
In one known computer-controlled conveying system, a main processor is linked to each of a number of movable trolleys which support containers. The trolleys themselves include microprocessors which communicate with the main processor and each trolley microprocessor is able to store the destination address of its accompanying container so that the system is able to transport the trolley to its desired destination.